C4’s Bake Off smashes records

Channel 4’s Great British Bake Off

Channel 4 in the UK has doubled its best audience of the year with its first episode of The Great British Bake Off.

C4 nabbed rights to the ratings smasher last year after the BBC lost the contract to air it following disagreements over price with Love Productions, the UK firm behind the baking format.

The Great British Bake Off launched on C4 last night with an average audience of 6.5 million viewers and a 30.4% share. It peaked with 7.7 million viewers and a 34.6% share, delivering C4’s biggest overnight performance since the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in August 2012.

The format, sold globally by BBC Worldwide, achieved the channel’s biggest peaktime share for 16- to 34-year-old viewers in 10 years and it also almost doubled C4’s biggest show this year, Diana: In Her Own Words, which drew an average of 3.5 million viewers.